Robert J. Stewart

Robert J. "Bob" Stewart (16 February 1877-1971) was a Scottish communist politician and the head of the Communist Party of Great Britain's underground spy ring during the early 20th century.

Biography
Robert J. Stewart was born in Eassie, Angus, Scotland on 16 February 1877, and he grew up in Dundee. Stewart briefly lived in South Africa during the early 20th century and was a temperance activist before becoming a Marxist member of the Dundee town council in 1908. Stewart was imprisoned for his opposition to World War I before serving in the British Army from 1917 to 1919, being court-martialed four times. In 1920, he became one of the founders of the Communist Party of Great Britain, and he was sent to work for Comintern in Moscow in 1923. While there, he met key Soviet leaders and attended Vladimir Lenin's funeral, and he was sent to Ireland in 1924 to create a communist party there. The CPGB was in contact with the Irish Republican Army under Stewart, and he also communicated with communists from China and Norway. During the 1930s, Stewart became the CPGB's spymaster, and he relayed information to the Comintern in Moscow through a clandestine transmitter in Wimbledon, even controlling some spy rings within the United Kingdom. He died in 1971 at the age of 94.